The First of Many
by Luvergirl of Books
Summary: Ten songs, ten drabbles, endless possibilities. My first take on an RA based Shuffle Challenge, featuring any member of the gang we know and love!


**Shuffle Challenge**

**The First of Many**

**1: Unstoppable **_(Rascal Flatts, 3:48)_

The time is right; this is what everything has boiled down to. It's between you and the last Kalkara. You saw what happened to the other one. You saw how it was destroyed, how it was eliminated from this world.

One is left standing between you and freedom.

Think of all that is at stake, Will. You need to think of all the lives at stake.

Baron Arald—he gave all of you a chance, ever since being orphaned. He believed in you from the start.

Sir Rodney—he did not accept you to battleschool, thus opening your life to the Ranger Corps. He is training your best friend to be the great knight he is sure to be.

And then there is yourself.

And Halt.

Halt, who has given you everything, a dream, a life, and a family. A father. Halt, who is helpless, unconscious, and injured because of this beast. The Kalkara did this to your master.

So now, it must die.

The flames hurt, but you block out the pain. Fire biting into your flesh as you draw the burning arrow and take aim. The monster is now the helpless one.

And you shoot.

This is for Baron Arald, for Sir Rodney, for whom helped in their own ways to shape your path.

This is for Halt.

The last Kalkara is brought down by your determination, by your unstoppable love for those around you.

Now, you must go to your fallen comrades and master and help.

**A/N: **this was our class's 8th grade graduation song! Here is my try (and complete fail) of writing second person. Lovely.

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**2: The Only Exception **_(Paramore, 4:28)_

Halt takes his reputation seriously. He does not have to struggle to maintain it. His demeanor, his actions, they all shape who he is on the outside.

But there was Crowley, whom he knew like a brother. There was Gilan, his first apprentice, the joking boy who gave him a feeling of being part of a higher cause, for he was the upbringing of this young man's skills. There was Will, whom he had watched over from the time he was a baby to his Ranger training, and had learned to love and care for like a son. And there was Pauline, with whom he had loved from the moment he heard her sweet voice.

They were they some of the few exceptions to his grimness. He couldn't leave out others, like Horace, and Cassandra, and Alyss, and very few others, but they didn't have quite as much impact as the four aforementioned.

Halt sat in his living room, joining in with the lighthearted laughter and jokes with his friends. But they were more than friends. His Corps Commandant, his first apprentice, his current apprentice, and the love of his life, the ones he sat watching in this very room; they were his family.

And they were the best exceptions a grizzled, jaded old Ranger could ever hope to call his own.

**A/N:** before you protest, let me just say that I made this before I had gotten very far in the series, so the relationships between some of the characters hadn't all became evident to me yet.

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**3: Misery **_(Maroon 5, 3:35)_

This tower, I can tell, will be the death of somebody. Despite all of our efforts, Alyss—the messages, the acid—somebody will die today.

Whose fault is it?

Can you really blame anyone but the culprit? The one who started it all? The blame is Keren's. He did this to us.

Now, with you holding this sword over your head, I feel a seething anger toward him. He has held you captive in your own mind, he has taken you from me. Keren has put the odds in his favor, against the likes of us.

But if it is between your life and mine, I am willing to let you go. I couldn't bear the misery of knowing I saved myself when I could have saved you. But because the time has brought us to this, I must tell you one thing.

"I love you."

I watch as the sword clatters to the ground. Have you broken the hold on your mind, or is your subconscious just forbidding you to kill?

Now I know who is to die today. But the question is—which one of us will do it, and how?

**A/N: **now, someone, tell me how this song made me think of murdering off Keren…

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**4: If It's Love** _(Train, 3:59)_

"What do you think about me going away so much?"

Alyss looked at him with a smile. "Will, I love you. I love the Ranger that you are, and the assignments are part of that." She grinned. "Besides, I go on missions almost as much as you do. I would be a hypocrite of I was angry at you for it."

Will grinned at her, taking her hand in his. "I'm addicted."

She frowned, uncomprehending. "What do you mean?"

The Ranger kept grinning. "I'm addicted to you. Your laugh, your sense of humor. I think about that all the time."

He reached down and plucked a wildflower, handing it to her_. If this is love_, he thought, _I want even more_.

**A/N:** C-O-R-N-Y!

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**5: Dying to Know You **_(Downhere, 3:30)_

He walked down the street, thinking and basically in his own little world. What would it take for him to get that feeling lifted off his shoulders? There was no way that he could have the love of his life now; she was already married.

He felt like he was dying, but why, he wasn't sure.

He wanted to swim far away, just to feel the waves. He wanted to run a marathon, just to feel the ground pounding beneath his feet. He wanted to get away, but to absorb himself in everything at the same time.

He didn't notice his surroundings until he ran full on into a woman, and they both fell to the ground.

He took a look at her face; he didn't know her, but they smiled like they were best friends.

Maybe he's just dying for company.

Smiling at her, he took a hand and helped her up. "Hi," he said. "I'm Crowley."

**A/N: **am I the only one who thinks that Crowley needs a significant other?

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**6: Face Down **_(Red Jumpsuit Apparatus, 3:12)_

Cassie cringed as she felt the stinging blow on her ribs, and fell to the floor. He was hitting her again. She didn't know if he did it just to say that he did, or if he was actually mad at her.

She couldn't remember what she had done wrong.

He was no fool. He knew where to hit, so that the bruises wouldn't be found. He never broke any bones, but the blows still hurt.

Face down, she told herself that this didn't really hurt. Cassie didn't know if it made him feel like a man or something, but she could take it, and would handle it in stride.

Someday, she will tell someone what he does to her. She will stop telling herself that everything was okay, that it was all out of love. Someday, she would stand up for herself; she would make sure that it never happened again, she would assert herself.

But right now, she could handle it. It was because he loved her, she told herself. Right now, she couldn't handle breaking away from him, even this violent side of him. Because Cassie loves him too much.

**A/N:** I have no idea who was hitting her, just use your imagination, I suppose. I just thought that Cassie would be good for this song.

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**7: Maybe **_(Sick Puppies, 3:20)_

You know, maybe I'm crazy, maybe no one understands me, maybe I'm alone in things, maybe it doesn't matter.

Maybe I should change my ways, but then again, maybe I shouldn't.

I'm a hopeless case, I can't even be trusted, I can't go for the bigger things in life.

Maybe I should change my ways, but then again, maybe I shouldn't.

As I fire my bow, over and over and over, as I throw my knives, over and over and over, I know for sure.

I don't care what I let my mind try to talk me into. I like the way I am, there's no need for me to change who I am. I'm Halt; I don't change for anyone.

Besides, I have so many people who love me for who I am. What would be the point in changing, when they love me for me?

**A/N:** Umm…not sure where I went with this one. I do believe that I kinda copied the song. I love this song, but I really don't think that Halt is that insecure. OOC much? No, wait, that's an understatement. It was crap.

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**8: Temporary Home**_ (Carrie Underwood, 4:29)_

"But Halt, why?" Pauline sobbed. "Why would this happen?"

"Think, Pauline," he managed to croak out. "Think of Will. I brought him to the ward, but did he stay there all his life? No. He moved on. Think of Gilan. Was he my apprentice forever? No, only for a while."

Pauline took a shuddering breath. "No one is asking you to do this. You can be saved, I know you can. Stay here as long as you can."

The old Ranger coughed, spitting out the blood that came up. "This here, this world we live in; this is my temporary home."

"Well, stay in your temporary home longer!"

Halt chuckled to try to stop her crying, though it pained him. "I would if I could. But I know I'm dying."

Pauline squared her shoulders, locking her jaw with determination. "I can't let that happen," she said, and Will burst into the room. He would know what to do. He would know how to save his former mentor.

**A/N:** Da da-da! SUPER WILL!

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**9: Into the Night** _(Santana feat. Chad Kroeger, 3:42)_

Horace looked around at all of the faces. This ball was massive, but there was one angel from above that he had been searching his whole life for, the one that could save his soul. The knight had a strange premonition that he would find this heavenly spirit tonight, at this ball.

He heard the music change from slow to upbeat, and the people crowded around him upped the tempo in their dancing. Horace even found himself dancing along. The inkling was strong now; he felt he was getting closer.

As he broke through the crowd, he laid his eyes on a young woman dancing beautifully, golden hair flying effortlessly past her shoulders. She twisted and turned her hips in a unique dance, and he felt immediately drawn to her.

Horace drew closer, and at last met Cassandra's eyes.

He joined her.

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**10. Whiskey Lullaby **_(Brad Paisley feat. Alison Krauss, 4:20)_

Halt led a giggling Pauline through the home, holding her by the hand. They were at a fast walk toward the bedroom, gazing at each other with loving eyes. Abruptly, Pauline stumbled but caught herself as her husband slipped and fell on something coating the floor just outside the closed door.

"Alright Halt, get up, I won't be deterred that easily!" She attempted to haul him to his feet, but was met with resistance. Taking a glance at her husband, she saw his stricken face, his unblinking eyes. "Halt?" she said tentatively, bending to kneel down. Her knees sat in a huge lake of blood pooling up from behind the door.

Pauline rolled Halt over, and knew instantly what had happened. As he had slipped on the blood, Halt had landed on the knife, which was now embedded in his back.

Too grief-stricken to even cry out, Pauline removed the knife, but he was already dead. With one last kiss to the love of her life, she plunged the knife deep into her chest. She fell across his body, adding the blood of herself to that of Halt's, and to the other blood that had already soaked the ground.

On the other side of the door, in the small bedroom, there was a shockingly similar scene. Horace and Cassie lay on top of one other. But Horace had been the one to slip, and Cassie had wielded the knife to herself.

**A/N: **woah, bloodbath. Morbid. *singing* She put that bottle to her head, and pulled the trigger…and finally drank away his memory. Life is short, but this time, it was bigger…than the strength she had to get up off her knees. We found her with her face down in the pillow…clinging to his picture for dear life. We laid her next to him, beneath the willow…while the angels sang a whiskey lullaby. La la-la la la la la… (don't ask me how a knife laying _on the ground_ managed to stick itself in his back, because I have no idea. Its all just odd)

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**A/N:** Now, this was the very first Shuffle Challenge that I ever did, so don't get mad for any inconsistencies. Review and tell me what you thought!


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